Los Angeles
Superior Court Judge Harvey Silberman’s lead campaign consultant admitted
yesterday that she was responsible for the use of slate mail language that
caused serious problems for another client.

Evelyn Jerome
Alexander was the consultant for Superior Court Referee Cynthia Loo, who lost a
runoff election to then-Deputy District Attorney Tom Rubinson in 2008. That was
the same year Alexander and then-partner Randy Steinberg handled Silberman’s
successful campaign.

Alexander,
recalled yesterday as a prosecution witness at Silberman’s trial for felony
violation of the Elections Code, confirmed details of an internal Superior
Court probe that was not made public at the time.

Slate Mailer

The
investigation resulted from language on a slate mailer, referring to Loo as a
“Tough but Fair Juvenile Court Judge.” This led to a complaint—the complainant
was not identified by Alexander—that Loo had violated ethical standards by
misrepresenting herself.

Alexander said
she used the language on a small number of slates, and that it was “my
mistake,” not the candidate’s.

Alexander said
she and Loo both testified before a retired judge conducting the probe. No
sanctions resulted, she said.

Silberman’s
defense counsel were allowed to probe the area over the prosecution’s objection
that it was irrelevant to the charge that Silberman offered an inducement to
Deputy District Attorney Serena Murillo not to run against him.

Orange Superior
Court Judge Richard M. King, sitting on assignment, said the evidence goes “to
the heart of the defense case”—its contention that Alexander followed a
practice of acting on behalf of clients without their knowledge or
authorization.

Alexander
insisted on Wednesday that Silberman specifically approved her recommendation
that the campaign offer to pay Murillo’s filing fee if she would run for a seat
other than the one she and Silberman were both eyeing.

Silberman and
his lawyers have maintained that the consultants acted entirely on their own,
and that it was they, not Silberman, who feared that the then-commissioner
could not beat Murillo.

Earlier Client

Alexander
acknowledged in her testimony Wednesday that she was worried that Silberman
would repeat the experience of her earlier client, Alan Friedenthal—like
Silberman a white, male, Jewish court commissioner—who ran in 2006 but lost to
a Latina prosecutor, Deborah Sanchez.

Defense
co-counsel Shepard Kopp also told the judge yesterday that the defense intends
to call Superior Court Judge Bobbi Tillmon as a witness. Alexander testified
Wednesday that she had Tillmon’s authorization to pay the filing fee for a
potential opponent, on the last day of filing in 2006.

Alexander said
no actual payment was necessary in that instance because no one appeared to run
against the then-commissioner, who pulled off the rare feat of running
unopposed for an open seat. Kopp suggested Tillmon will testify that Alexander
acted entirely on her own in that instance as well.

Plea Agreement

Alexander and
Steinberg are both awaiting sentencing after pleading no contest to misdemeanor
conspiracy charges, as part of recent plea agreements with prosecutors. They
were indicted with Silberman two years ago under Elections Code Sec. 18205,
which reads:

“A person shall
not directly or through any other person advance, pay, solicit, or receive or
cause to be advanced, paid, solicited, or received, any money or other valuable
consideration to or for the use of any person in order to induce a person not
to become or to withdraw as a candidate for public office. Violation of this
section shall be punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 16 months
or two or three years.”

The prosecution
is expected to rest its case against Silberman Monday.